Unreleased Kendrick Lamar and Kanye West Song Pops Up Online, Sparks Fan Debate

An unfinished track titled "Intro" surfaced on Reddit Tuesday night. Fans could hear verses from Kendrick Lamar and Kanye West on the raw cut, sparking mixed reactions from listeners. Time-stamped lyrics suggest the recording took place before 2020.

"We approaching 2020, 20-20 vision is coming up out my hoodie," raps Lamar in a verse that's now going viral on social media, according to Hot New Hip Hop. The track's appearance follows the buzz about a past collab between the two artists.

Music maker Consequence shared with Billboard in 2024 that Kanye and Kendrick had enough songs for a full album stashed away. "I think it just needed to be structured. But the ideas are... Yeah, I heard the whole thing. It's there," he revealed, adding that the tracks were produced by Madlib.

Following the leak, online chatter zeroed in on the stark contrasts between their parts. One Reddit post cut straight to the point about West's contribution: "Kind of sounds like his verse ain't ready and he put down what he wants the flow to sound like."

Another user backed up that stance, writing: "Pretty sure this has been Kanyes way of collaborative writing since at least MBDTF era, where he does a mumble freestyle and then a writer goes back over it and fleshes out the lyrics." The "Can't Tell Me Nothing" rapper's part featured rough vocals rather than clear words.

Legendary producer Madlib added his thoughts to claims of more hidden gems featuring both rappers. "Oh, they did like 30 minutes of stuff, just going back and forth," he told Complex in 2020. "They were going off, too, man. Because I do my beat tapes like one-minute beats, and they were just, one minute on that one, that one, that one. It was crazy."

This leak drops amid growing tension. West has taken shots at Lamar, picking sides in a music feud and lashing out over a track called "Not Like Us." Their last official team-up came with "No More Parties in LA" back in January 2016, with Kanye tweeting about a month later about having more songs with the rapper and Young Thug in the vault.

"Me and Kendrick got 40 songs and Me and Young Thug got 40 songs," he wrote on X at the time. While it keeps making rounds online, the exact recording date of this leaked cut remains a mystery.